Sunday, January 5, 2014

Cuba: Havana Falls Short of Its Goal of 3 Million Tourists in 2013

According
to The Latin American Tribune, Cuba
welcomed between January and November more than 2.5 million foreign tourists,
according to data published by the National Statistics and Information Office
(ONEI).

The
report said that 2,546,851 tourists arrived on the island in the first 11
months of 2013, with 234,266 of them landing here in November.

Cuba
will not reach its target volume of 3 million tourists this year, but rather,
as directors of the sector have said, the total for 2013 is expected to be
around 2.8 million foreign visitors, a number similar to last year.

COMMENT:
Among the main factors that have influenced Cuba’s failure to reach its tourist
target, Cuban tourism authorities point to problems in the source countries
such as unemployment and the global economic crisis.Canada,
which accounts for 38.9% of foreign visitors, remains in the lead as Cuba’s top
tourist market with more than 1 million visitors to the Caribbean island this
year.Canada
is followed by the following countries in descending order: UK, Germany,
France, Argentina, Italy, México, Spain, Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, the Netherlands,
Switzerland, China, Perú and Brazil.

About Me

I retired from the US State Department in April 2006, after a career as a special agent, Senior Regional Security Officer (SRSO), director of training, chief investigator of the Cyprus Missing Persons Program, director of security of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and as a senior adviser in the Office of Anti-Terrorism Assistance.
My book, STAYING SAFE ABROAD: TRAVELING, WORKING AND LIVING IN A POST-9/11 WORLD was published in May 2008.
A complete update of STAYING SAFE ABROAD 2015, will be release during early 2015 for the iPad, Kindle and Nook and other e-readers.
I am a former Federal Firearms Dealer (US), a certified NRA pistol instructor and a certified NRA Range Safety Officer.
My career has also included 15 years as an international security consultant; for ten years I served as the security adviser to the Inter-American Development Bank.
I additionally, served six years in the Marines, which included combat service in Vietnam.
I am available for operational assignments, lecturing opportunities and in providing security solutions anywhere in the world.